


Hello World

by CosplayCatCriminal



Series: The Scary Jokes [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Anxiety, Connie is a little less oblivious, F/M, Flashbacks, Light Angst, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Multi, Oblivious Connie, Oblivious Spinel, Oblivious Steven, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Selectively Mute Characters, Trauma, mute Spinel, mute character, selectively mute Spinel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22287283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosplayCatCriminal/pseuds/CosplayCatCriminal
Summary: Hello WorldI feel like I'm about to freezeIt always comes as a surprise to meWhen you get so coldBut I know that soonThe sun will come shinning on throughAnd you'll feel just like new.Maybe I'll feel like that too.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Spinel, Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Spinel & Steven Universe, Spinel/Steven Universe
Series: The Scary Jokes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604242
Comments: 14
Kudos: 39





	1. Prologue

Things had been going well for Steven Universe, two years since the incident with Spinel and the injector, two years since Spinel went to live with The Diamonds, and two years since Steven had heard or seen of Spinel directly or in person. Every now and then while visiting The Diamonds Steven had asked how she was, and they would always reply with positivity in Spinel’s well-being. And besides the encounter where Steven had walked in on Spinel and Pink Pearl putting a puzzle together before Spinel had slipped out the door in a matter of seconds, Steven had no idea how she  _ really _ was doing. That was, until today.

Steven was in his room when he heard the warp going off, assuming it was one of the Crystal Gems, Steven paid no mind to it. That was until he heard running throughout the house before hearing, and feeling, the front door slam shut with an enormous amount of force. Bookmarking the page, he set the book he was reading down on his bed, before getting up himself to check out what was happening. He walked down the stairs and out the front door before heading down to the beach to see if who passed through the house was still nearby. He saw someone at the end of the beach standing alone, and as he walked closer he noticed the unmistakable features of the person or gem. And while excited, he was also scared, and maybe it was the natural fear she put in him, but he was still excited to  _ actually see her. _ He rushed to catch up to her, and her, hearing the quickening footsteps, harshly turned around to see who it was. The fear in her eyes quickly dissolved, before just as quickly sparking up and bursting into flames. She and Steven both backed away from each other, too scared of the other to act, too scared of how the other would act. Both acting like frightened bunnies, and ready to rush away if the other moved. And they didn’t move, but one spoke. His voice cracked and wavered, clearly nervous and afraid, and maybe a little excited, and if Spinel wasn’t so afraid herself, she would have laughed at how pathetic he was being.

“Spinel..” The one mentioned froze and stood as still as ice at the sound of her name, at the sound of her name coming from him. The atmosphere between them was so thick, and awkward, and  _ scary _ . But Steven still tried.

“What- what are you visiting for..?” Spinel still didn’t answer, and as Steven took a step towards her, she took a step away from him.

“Spinel, it’s okay… I’m not going to hurt you…” Spinel shook her head, looking down at her feet, sighing in defeat at realizing she wouldn't win this game, just like all the others she so desperately tried to accomplish. And she opened her mouth to talk, but it felt like the world froze around her when she tried to do so. She  _ couldn't _ talk, she realized. A common experience since living with the Diamonds. Moments where she wanted to say something, anything, but the fear inside her stilled her talking, held her back from forming any sound. And Steven took another step towards her, and she didn't shy away this time, so he talked again.

"What's the matter Spinel..? Are… Are you okay…?" She shook her head, feeling shame overtake her well-being.

"Can you talk…?" Another question. And another one where Spinel shook her head. She could see Steven eyeing her gem, but nothing was wrong, nothing was wrong with her gem, what was wrong was with her. Steven seemed to visibly calm at the sight of her non-damaged gem. Steven held out his hand toward her. And her, always trusting in him, took it.

Steven led them back to the house, and once inside, sat them both down on the couch.

"Spinel, I didn't see anything wrong with your gem... So are you choosing not to talk?" Spinel shook her head once again.

"So is it something you can't control?" At this question, Spinel nodded her head. Steven seemed to be mulling over something in his head like he was going through knowledge and information he knew on the subject at hand. This only lasted for a minute or two before he perked up, snapping his fingers.

"Aha! I think I know what it is. Connie told me a while ago that sometimes people aren't able to talk, and it can be from a physical thing. But your gem isn't cracked and you guys don't exactly have vocal cords? I think so at least. So it's probably a mental health thing she told me about." Spinel soaked in the information and nodded again, slightly frowning and looking down. Steven noted this and brought something up.

"We can go see Connie about this if you want, I know she knows at least a little bit on this so maybe she'll be able to help me- help us, understand it more?" Steven tilted his head, his hand rested on his chin and a slightly questioning look on his face. Spinel nodded, willing to go along with this.

“Connie said she would be home all day earlier, so I think we could go right now if you want?” Spinel nodded, slightly smiling. Steven stood up and held out his hand, and when Spinel didn’t take it, he frowned a little, but still kept his cheerful demeanor up. 

“Alright, let’s get going.”

Steven led them out of the house and through Beach City, Spinel every once in a while stopping and staring at things in the city, a somber expression always on her face. She wondered if everyone remembered her with malice, remembered what she did and would never forgive her. But there was no point in wallowing in the pain now, she thought, she shouldn’t worry Steven like this if he even was worried about her. Soon enough they made it to a stop in front of a house in a neighborhood, all houses, not exactly the same but all did look similar. A knock on the door snapped her out of her haze and her gaze shifted to where the door opened to reveal a familiar-looking human.

“Oh, hi Steven!” She looked happy to see him, but the expression quickly died out when she noticed Spinel standing behind him, surprise overtaking her face, and maybe just a hint of fear as well. Steven noticed Connie’s expression and turned around, seeing Spinel with her eyes wide, pupils dilated, and pigtails pointing down.

“Oh, Connie, you remember Spinel, don’t you?” Connie nodded, and then quickly turned her gaze to Steven again.

“So, what brings you… two… here?” Connie asked. Steven perked up and his smile returned, answering her question.

“I wanted to ask you something I was wondering about, I need your help with it.”

“Okay, come in guys,” Connie said hesitantly, opening the door wide and stepping aside to let them both enter the house. Steven quickly headed inside while Spinel slowly stepped inside the house, looking down and clasping her hands together in front of her torso. Spinel felt embarrassed and ashamed to be welcomed into someone’s house that didn’t exactly actually want you there, she was only let inside because she was with Steven. And honestly, she couldn’t blame Connie, she tried to kill Steven, tried to kill the entire planet, and subsequently tried to kill her in the whole process too.

Steven sat on the couch in the living room, and Spinel followed suit and sat down on the opposite end of the couch, while Connie sat on the other chair.

“So, what did you need help with Steven?” Connie asked cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.

“Okay, so I know you told me this a long while ago. But I wanted to ask if you know anything about not being able to talk. Like, not being able to talk because of a psychological problem, not physical.” Steven asked, trying to explain it to the best of his abilities. Connie momentarily glanced at Spinel before answering his question.

“You mean Selective Mutism?”

“I guess so, what does it mean to have it?” Connie concentrated, preparing to answer his question.

“Well, It’s usually caused by anxiety or other psychological factors. It’s basically where sometimes the individual is physically unable to talk in some situations, mostly because the situation is causing high anxiety or other negative emotions.” Spinel listened and commented in her mind that it did make sense, as this whole situation made her want to curl up into a ball and disappear.

Now that she thought about it, that was always the cause for it, and it made her even more convinced that she was broken in a way that couldn’t heal through her gem. Steven, on the other hand, thought it made perfect sense and was happy that it had a name and cause, and that Spinel could hopefully work through it.

Steven turned around to look at Spinel, smiling comfortingly. “Well, does that sound like what it is?” Spinel nodded in response and noted that Connie looked surprised behind Steven, realizing that Spinel was the one who was suffering from it. Steven turned back around to face Connie, trying to word his next words carefully.

“Is there any way you can… cope… with it?” Connie got what he was trying to say and smiled, nodding.

“Of course, though it would take a lot of work.” Steven nodded.

“Thank you so much, Connie, this helped a lot.” Steven smiled and stood up, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, it’s gettin’ kinda late, so I think we should head back. If none of us are too busy, maybe we could hang out tomorrow?” Connie got visibly excited at his proposal, and stood up, responding quickly.

“Of course! I would love to!” Connie leaned over and gave Steven a peck on the cheek as he blushed embarrassingly, Spinel wondering silently why he was blushing so much. Steven cleared his throat and turned around to Spinel, holding out his hand.

“Let’s get going, I wanna make sure to wake up early tomorrow.” Spinel still didn’t take his hand, but Steven brushed off the small amount of disappointment he felt from it. He guessed he was used to Spinel being clingy and over-affectionate, so it was just a little weird to see her being more reserved.

Steven slowly started to head out of the house with Spinel following behind him.

“See ya, Connie!” Steven shouted before the front door closed loudly behind them, and the sight of the setting sun was taking up most of their vision. Spinel stopped in her tracks and looked up straight at it, her eyes straining, yet she kept her gaze. Steven quickly noted the lack of light squeaking behind him and turned around to see Spinel gazing in awe at the setting sun. Steven found himself staring at Spinel, time seemingly stopping at the moment. The world around them was saturated in light orange and deep pink, an ethereal feeling spreading across the atmosphere. He caught a faint blush flushing spinel’s cheeks and nose and her eyes shone and sparkled at the sun above them. She was beautiful, Steven thought, and he found himself staring at her in adoration, his own eyes catching the same gleam as hers, and with the same kind of blush flushing his face.

Spinel loved how outstanding the sky and sun looked. The entire earth seemed to harbor this sort of charm, one that caught everyone that had the luck to experience it. Spinel saw how the earth had healed from her toxicity, how the land seemingly came back even more lush and rich. How despite what was thrown at it, it always seemed to heal. The grass grew back, the town soon seemed bright again, the air no longer had poison to it and the ocean was cleared from the sickeningly dark pink mess it was back into the clear and shining water, and with all the now healthy organic life thriving underneath it. Spinel regretted trying to destroy this amazing planet, trying to take it away from the galaxy, trying to take it away along with all organic life. And as Spinel was encaptured in earth’s beauty, she was sure of one thing:

  
  


**Earth was beautiful.**

\- - - - - - - - - -

They both soon returned to the beach house as the sky started to turn dark, Steven sighed as he noted that there was still no one home, everyone must have been busy in Little Homeschool. Spinel trailed close behind him, unsure of what to do, awkwardly clasping her hands together in front of her. Steven turned around to see how nervous she felt and tried to smile to lighten the mood. Steven soon led them both to sit down on the couch and faced Spinel, stress clearly shown on his face. “I’m gonna have to head to bed soon, I’m tired, and humans need sleep.” Spinel tilted her head in confusion,  _ what was sleep? _ She thought to herself. Steven caught onto her confusion and understood. “You don’t know what sleep is, do you?”

Spinel shook her head, it wasn’t a surprise to Steven, Gems didn’t need sleep, so it would make sense that most didn’t know what it was. Steven cleared his throat and responded. “Well, humans get tired and lose energy throughout the day, so at night we lie down and close our eyes to recharge our energy for the next day, make sense?” Steven tilted his head and Spinel nodded hers, slightly understanding. Steven then continued on with what he was saying.

“I’m going to head into my room and sleep, you’re free to explore the house or head down to Little Homeschool if you want to introduce yourself and meet other gems if you want.” Steven was hesitant to leave her alone, but she seemed way less clingy and the Diamonds confirmed that she was doing better, so it should be fine.

And as Steven headed upstairs to sleep, Spinel was left in the living room, watching Steven until he disappeared into his room. Nervousness crept up her spine at the thought of being alone, but Steven must’ve thought she was better to leave her alone, and she didn’t want to disappoint. But she wasn’t better, and she knew that. It hurt, the silence hurt so bad. She couldn’t even fill that gap with her own voice, she was pathetic and stupid, and too trusting. All the thoughts swirled in her head until tears pricked at the corner of her eyes and quickly bubbled over, them silently streaming down her face and dripping onto the floor beneath her. Her hands ended up held together and she looked down at the floor and watched the tears that burned her eyes turn into temporary stains upon the floor. And suddenly, her thoughts froze and she wasn’t in the same surroundings. 

She felt cold and sharp winds blow past her and her eyes snapped open, looking around. Her eyes landed on the things around her, crumbled pillars, dead flowers, dead grass, dead plants. And suddenly she felt a sharp stinging surrounding her feet and ankles, panicked, she looked down to see sharp vines twisted around her feet like gnarly tree roots.  _ No no no no no no,  _ panic bubbled in her chest as she tried to free her feet, tugging and struggling against the vines. They only cut into her form more as she continued to fight against them, and soon enough they started to grow up her legs the more she panicked. She soon learned that she needed to stay still to stop them from growing and cutting into her legs. The thorns punctured her legs and buried themselves inside her legs, her form chipping away at the pressure. She winced at the pain and hands dug into the other to try to tolerate the pain. All she had to do was wait, wait for Pink, no, wait for Steven to come back and she would win, she would finally win the game she so pathetically lost years ago. So as she forced a smile upon her face, and laced her finger together, she could only wait now, wait for Steven,

**Wait to be free.**

\- - - - - - - - - - 

The sun rose and shone over the world, reflecting off of the ocean in such a beautiful way. Steven woke up from his alarm clock that read ‘9:48’, huh, he thought, he must’ve slept through some alarms. It was still quiet in the house, and it didn’t bug him until he remembered that Spinel was over visiting. Maybe she tried to sleep and fell asleep, maybe she was at Little Homeschool, but whatever it was, it didn’t feel right. He quickly got up and got dressed, heading downstairs. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he looked up and saw her. She didn't even seem to register that he was there, her eyes hazed over and unfocused into the distance. Steven froze in his tracks and a clearly worried expression worked itself onto his face. The way she was standing, her pose, it made him uneasy, but he couldn't place exactly what it was.

Steven cautiously walked over to Spinel and placed his hand on Spinel's shoulder. She snapped out of her daze and flinched, jerking backward. Steven, not expecting this reaction, did so as well.

Spinel's eyes slowly shifted into focus once again, and saw that she had scared away from Steven, and made him do the same. She looked around, noticing her surroundings and seeing she was no longer in the garden and that she was safe. A blush formed onto her face when she realized how dramatic and embarrassing she was being, she looked down into the floor and couldn't help the tears that pricked at the corner of her eyes, she was so ashamed of herself. What was wrong with her, why couldn't she just function normally?

Steven quickly calmed down and noticed the blush that rose on Spinel's face and the tears that threatened to spill over her eyes. He slowly started to walk up to Spinel again.

"Hey, Spinel, it's okay…" He said in a soothing voice, seeing Spinel slowly raise her head again to look at him.

"You're okay Spinel, you're safe, I promise." Steven walked even closer, extending his arms, signaling that it was okay to hug him. But Spinel didn't want to. She didn't want to touch anyone, she didn't want to be touched. She didn't want to be clingy and she didn't want to hurt anyone anymore. She slowly shook her head, and while Steven looked disappointed, he lowered his arms.

"You doing better now?" He asked, ready for any sort of reply. Spinel looked at him, knowing how much he cared for everyone, knowing that, no matter how much she wanted to sob and scream about how everything always hurt, she couldn't make him go through anything bad anymore. Spinel no longer would be the reason he had negative emotions, she would have to keep everything bottled up. She faintly smiled and nodded, still not able to speak out of anxiety and fear. Steven smiled in return, glad that she was feeling better.

Steven walked over to the couch and sat down, patting the empty space next to him with his hand. Spinel, getting the signal, walked over and sat down next to him. He looked at her, nervousness settling in his stomach, he didn't want to make her feel upset with all these questions, he thought, but he needed to know the answers to them to be able to move forward.

"Do the Diamonds know you're here?" Spinel shook her head, looking slightly disappointed in herself. Okay, he thought.

"Do you want them to know you're here?" Spinel froze up at that question, not even sure herself, so she just shrugged, frowning. Steven sighed once again.

“Okay… We can figure that out later…” Spinel raised her head and looked at him, her eyes glistening, Steven’s heart sank at the sight. He wanted to ask Spinel what happened last night, why she was so spaced out when he got down here, but the look in her eyes made him not want to ask because it seemed like it would upset her even more. Steven frowned, then remembered something and put on a mostly forced smile, looking at Spinel.

“Hey, weren’t we gonna have some fun with Connie today?” Spinel’s head perked up at the question, a faint and small smile forming on her lips. She nodded quickly and Steven stood up, offering his hand. Spinel looked at it for a moment, hesitating in what to do, but she decided to stick with what she told herself, and she never took it. Steven frowned for a split second, once again disappointed that she didn’t take his hand. But why would he be disappointed? It was Spinel’s decision with what she was comfortable with, and it wasn’t like she had some sort of obligation to hold his hand or hug him, so why did he always get so upset when she never accepted his offers of comfort? Maybe it was just the factor of rejection that made him so sad. Steven quickly cleared his throat and spoke up.

**“Well then, let’s get going!”**

\---------- 

After Steven had grabbed his jacket and put on his shoes, they both had left for Connie’s house. The walk there was peaceful, but halfway through Steven had pulled out this rectangular device and tapped on it with his fingers for a minute or two before pressing a button on it and placing it in his jacket pocket once again. He glanced to the side of him and saw Spinel’s eyes wide in wonder before questioning her.

“What’re you so curious about?” He asked, scratching head, a nervous habit. Spinel pointed to his jacket and he looked at it, picking up a corner of his and pointing at it.

“My jacket?” Spinel shook her head and continued to point at where his pocket in his jacket was, Steven’s eyes lit up in wonder before fetching his phone out of his pocket.

“Ohhh, you mean this?” Steven held up his phone and Spinel’s eyes followed it, her nodding in reply. 

“Well, It’s called a phone, and it’s a communication device where you can call and message other people on, I was just using it to tell Connie we were on our way. And oh! These are touch screen phones, which means you can, well, use your fingers to tap stuff on it and that’s how you navigate it, and you can also play games on it!.”

Spinel had been following what he was saying and was genuinely interested. That was until the word ‘games’ was brought up, and her expression shifted into an excited and gleeful looking one. Steven had noticed her excitement on the last part and smiled, chuckling a little at how happy she looked.

“Alright, alright, let’s sit down for a second.” Spinel and Steven had walked a little bit longer before finding a bench to sit on. Steven once again brought out his phone and leaned a bit towards Spinel so she could see the screen. He pressed a button on the side of it and the device came to life, Spinel’s eyes practically sparkling as her reaction. Steven entered some sort of code before it went onto another part of the phone, this one having a different picture then the one that had the code on it, that one had been of Steven and the Crystal Gems smiling together, this one was a picture and Steven and Connie, both smiling wide and Steven putting bunny ears over Connie’s head with his fingers.

“I don’t really have any games on my phone so we can dow- I mean get some to play on here” Spinel nodded, still fascinated by how the tiny machine worked. She saw Steven scroll through pages on his phone before clicking a tiny picture on it, it also opening a new page on the device. Spinel’s eyes stayed glued to the phone as she watched Steven navigate the phone.

Eventually, Steven tapped on a picture and colorful colors filled the screen, Spinel’s eyes formed stars in them. Steven explained how the game worked and afterward handed the phone to Spinel. She seems absorbed in the game, a huge smile on her face the entire time, and Steven felt just as involved just watching her playing the game. Time passed and before he knew it, his phone was almost dead, a warning flashing on the screen, and he took his phone from her hand.

“Ah, it’s almost out of battery, we can play some more games on it later.” Steven glanced at her, smiling, she looked slightly disappointed, but replied with a quiet ‘okay’. Steven and Spinel both jumped at the noise, shock, and surprise overcoming them both.

“S-Spinel..” Steven looked at her, surprised but happy. Spinel looked down at her hands in her lap, not knowing what exactly to say. The sound of her own voice feeling unfamiliar and detached from her as a whole. Steven noticed that Spinel didn’t share his enthusiasm with her speaking, and he lowered the volume of his voice to talk to her.

“Hey, Spinel, it’s okay… You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to..” Spinel looked up at him, nodding. It’s not like she could speak again even if she wanted to, her mind and body froze up once again in anxiety and fear. Steven sighed, obviously worried, and gave her a nervous smile, standing up. He didn’t offer his hand this time, knowing that she wouldn’t take it anyway.

“Let’s get going, Connie is waiting for us after all.” Steven almost face-palmed, while watching Spinel enjoy the game so much on his phone, he forgot that he had already told Connie they were on their way to her house. Spinel stood up wearily standing up and following Steven. They continued to walk to her house, Spinel taking in everything around her, slightly analyzing everything. Suddenly, she saw something fluttering over her vision and felt something land on her nose, blurry and out of focus. She focused her eyes on the thing, and the image became clear. She froze in her tracks, almost falling over at how sudden it was. It… It was a butterfly… It was so small and fragile-looking, blue and white twisting over its wings. It was so pretty and angelic… So… So beautiful… So unlike herself, who was broken forever, visibly damaged and disgusting, a disgusting gem who deserved all the hurt she got. But this creature, it was so kind and graceful… And perfect...

**Just like Pink.**

\----------

The pair had eventually made it to Connie’s house, Steven almost immediately knocking on the door. After a few moments of silence, the door opened and revealed Connie, who’s mood instantly lifted the moment she saw Steven.

“Steven! Spinel! I was wondering when you guys would get here!” Steven embarrassingly blushing and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry Connie, we kinda got caught up in something.” Connie shot a confused glance over Steven’s shoulder and at Spinel.

“Oh, it’s okay, I just got kind of bored, haha…” Connie opened the door more and stepped to the side, letting Steven and Spinel in. They all walked into the living room and sat on the couch, Connie seemingly very excited.

“Okay, so! I was thinking about all the places we could go today. Spinel hasn’t really seen all of here or Beach City, so I was thinking we could go to fun places in Beach City, then come and look at some places here, then come back to my house and have dinner! If that’s okay with you guys, of course.” Steven instantly nodded and then looked back at Spinel, waiting for her reply. Spinel was hesitant… Why would they want to spend all this time with her..? Why would Connie want to spend all this time with her…? She hardly knew the gem and was already so willing to offer friendship to her. Spinel slowly nodded, not looking all that sure, but still agreeing. Connie and Steven both stood up, chatting to each other and walking towards the door. Spinel stood and froze up, realizing what was exactly happening. Oh, she was being left behind.

**_How swell._ **

  
  
  



	2. Three's a Crowd!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spinel spends some time with the jam buds!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is A LOT shorter than the other, but I haven't updated in forever and if I didn't post this it probably would've never been updated!

Spinel had eventually caught up to Connie and Steven, walking slowly behind them. They seemed so involved in their conversation, Spinel would hate to interrupt. She didn't want to be ignored, she didn't like it. She kept switching back and forth between what she should do that she didn't notice that they had stopped in front of her. Spinel had bumped into their backs, swiftly falling into the ground behind her. She flinched, the pain registering in her form. Well, that was one way to interrupt them, she thought. 

Connie was the first to turn around and see Spinel fallen down “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed as she crouched down and held out her hand, Spinel absentmindedly took it and was assisted back onto her feet. Spinel looked at them both, Steven having a small look of surprise on his face, before replacing it with an expression of worry similar to Connie’s. Spinel didn’t know how to express that she was sorry, so she just stared down at her feet, her form visibly shorter than when she was in a better mood. Steven didn’t exactly know how to respond to the situation, suddenly finding it a lot harder to reach Spinel emotionally. Connie, however, seemed to at least try to resolve or better the situation.

Connie slowly placed both of her hands on Spinel’s shoulders, and Spinel looked up at her, shame clear in her eyes. She was surprised to see that Connie wasn’t disgusted, or mad, in fact, her expression showed worry along with a friendly smile. The gesture alone made Spinel subconsciously smile back in a melancholy way. “Hey, Spinel, I’m sorry for accidentally ignoring you and suddenly stopping, I really didn’t mean to. I just haven’t spent time with Steven a lot lately.-” At that statement, Spinel saw Steven quickly look away, acting like he wasn’t listening.

-“ But that doesn’t mean we don’t wanna spend time with you, I know I was excited to spend time with you, heck, that’s why I tried to plan out our day so we all could have the most fun. We want you here, so don’t worry about us leaving you right now, and you can always communicate to us if you’re feeling down, okay?”

Spinel felt speechless in the moment, no one had ever reached out to her in such a heartfelt in and clear way before, and she almost let herself cry. Spinel smiled brightly and quickly nodded. Connie seemed happy at her improved mood.”That’s great! Let’s go have some fun together.”

Spinel then started to walk beside Connie, nervously fidgeting with her hands as she was wondering where they were going. Connie noticed her anxiety and silently offered her hand, and Spinel, with no second thoughts, took it. She caught Steven looking at their hands, then to Spinel, before realizing she was staring back. He quickly looked away with a pink hue forming on his cheeks. Spinel was visibly confused at his actions but decided to brush it off for now. Soon they arrived at the opening of an extravagant looking place.

Steven took the chance to curb the awkward tension around them and quickly moved in front of them, fake enthusiasm hardly convincing.

“This is Funland! As you can tell by the sign, so, let’s have some fun!” Steven continued to walk forwards and Spinel squeezed Connie’s hand a bit, signaling she was okay now, and let go of her hand. She looked up at the sign, then to the area in front of her. Stars exploded in her eyes and she felt a huge smile spread across her face, this looked so cool! She couldn’t wait to explore the rest of this place!

She ran ahead to catch up with the two, giggling to herself inside her head. Spinel’s attention moved to a machine, a cart moving across it in various directions, holding screaming people. Spinel worldlessly tugged on Steven’s jacket pointing to the ride with a curious look on her face. Steven perked up once he realized what she was asking.

“Oh! That’s a rollercoaster! It’s a fun ride, do you wanna go on it?” Spinel quickly nodded her head, the speed being impossible for a human to achieve. Steven giggled, turning to Connie, silently asking her if she wanted to go as well. Connie looked at them for a second, noticing Spinel’s arm wrapped around his arm extensively, and it seemed as if Steven hadn’t even realized it yet. “Not today, I’m feeling a bit nauseous right now,” Connie said, looking uneasy to sell her point even more. Steven looked disappointed but accepted it rather quickly.

“Oh, okay! See you when we’re back!” he said enthusiastically, turning around and walking towards the line forming in front of the ride. Connie smiled at them, chuckling to herself and walking off, Spinel and Steven hadn’t seen each other in a while, and Spinel seemed visibly more comfortable with Steven, so she thought it was only fair that they could spend some more time together.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steven thought it was weird that Connie hadn’t wanted to go on the ride with them, but shrugged it off, thinking it was nothing to worry or think too hard about. Once they reached the line they became idle, and Steven suddenly became hyperaware of his surroundings as he saw Spinel’s fingers entangled with his, and her arm tightly wrapped around his three-fold. He looked at Spinel frantically, but she was too busy looking at all the amazing games and entertainment around the area from where she stood. Steven’s face broke out into a fevered looking one, blushing heating up his face. He looked around for Connie but saw no sight of her. He was panicking, and he didn’t know why. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He had spent so much time being disappointed and upset when Spinel never reciprocated or accepted his affection, and now he was so upset over her offering her affection first? It just didn’t make sense. And as Steven looked ahead, he suddenly became super conscious about how small the seats were. He was so upset over the idea of being kinda pressed up against Spinel. Why would he be though? She was just a gem he knew, maybe even a friend, and he liked Connie, and Connie liked him! Suddenly the line went forward and he found himself and the air around him become more and more awkward and tense until it came to their turn to get in, and as he sat down and helped Spinel in with him, his entire face was now noticeably red, and Spinel took notice. The ride started to start up, and he found himself being unable to put a cap on his blushing.

  
  


**Oh Boy.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would any of you guys be interested in me putting my insta here so you can ask me questions about the fic and rant about how amazing and sweet Stevinel is with me? Please let me know!


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